One misses the Rock when one isn't on it...

Live from The Rock, it's Saturday night! Well, actually now it is Sunday morning but you get the idea. Yesterday I went out on a limb and joined a student tour to Gibraltar. By out on a limb I just mean that I decided not to just take a train/bus to Gibraltar and fend for myself. I'm sort of skeptical of these little student tours because most of them are riddled with American students all travelling in packs talking about getting drunk at every moment of the day. I figured that in going with a tour, even if I was by myself, I wasn't really by myself. And so I got to benefit from not having to make my own travel arrangements and not having to organize bus tours and guides and I was pretty happy with the final result.

Yes there were lots of annoying Yanks, but the two girls who guided the tour were lovely and our bus guide once we got to Gibraltar was a funny old Brit who knew all sorts of things due to his 28 year self imposed exile at Gibraltar. It was a beautiful clear day and we could see the tip of Africa and we could see the two ocean currents meeting along the Straight. We saw St. Michael's Cave, which was once converted to a military hospital during World War 2 when Hitler was trying to take Gibraltar, to a concert hall as of today. The monkies were out in full force, playing savage for the tourists. I was thrilled but had to wash all my clothes upon arriving home.

All in all it was a good trip and a pretty decent way to see and appreciate the Rock. I hope to be able to go back there when the parents come, but we'll have to wait and see. Next week I'm road tripping around Andalucia with some friends, so stay tuned!

a little bit about school, though I really should be studying...

Here it is, as promised, a bit about school here in Sevilla. Many have asked if I am infact going to school as all I seem to do is travel, but I do and here's the proof: Three midterms in a row this week. I will give you all a break down of what classes I'm in at the moment, and hopefully you will be as interested as I am. I actually have gotten pretty lucky because my professors are all really nice, fair and easy going. The only thing that they are really strict about is attendance and no eating in class, but other than that they are very nice. Our school used to be a jail, which leaves a little to be desired as far as ambiance is concerned but that's okay. So the course load is as follows:

1. History of Spanish Cinema After the Democracy: This is a bit of a misnomer because we study pre-Franco cinema just as much as post-Franco but that's okay. So far we've talked about film history and seen some pretty intense films that have come out of the oppression of fascist dictatorship but we've also had the chance to go to the movies with our prof to see some contemporary stuff (in Spanish, of course).

2. Translation: This class was 14 people and is now split into 10 and 4 (I am one of the lucky ones in the group of 4 so we get lots of attention). This may sound boring but this has been the most surprising of my five classes in that I am really learning alot!! We've translated from both English and/or Spain into the other, we've done written and oral translations and so far we've looked at medical texts (studies on diabetes here in Spain), news texts (mostly articles about the war in Iraq), tourism texts (on various landmarks) and after the midterm we will start translating literary texts (probably parts of the Quixote) and audio-visual texts (my final project is to translate part of an episode of Desperate Housewives).

3. History of Spanish Art: This is one of my most difficult classes as the prof speaks really fast and moves though a lot of material. So far we've discussed Roman, Gothic, Almudejar and Renaissance architecture. We've visited the Museum of Fine Arts here in Seville as well as a special church that is normally closed to the public but was open only for one week which was Architecture Week here in Sevilla.

4. Spanish for Business: This class is pretty much what is sounds like. We are trying to develop our business vocabulary in Spanish, which has surprisingly been a challenge but also has been helpful. We've learned to discuss different types of companies, investments, written our resumes in Spanish and practiced job interviews in Spanish. This week we watched a really good documentary on the store "Zara" which is sort of a Spanish miracle that started out as one store in Galecia and has grown to 540 stores worldwide in such places as Tokyo, Dubai, Milan, New York, Paris and Vancouver. In Dubai, they close the store 5 times a day to accommodate the people who need to leave the store to pray and there it is especially difficult to predict what types of clothes women will buy because they are fully covered all the time by their burkas.

5. Lastly, History of the European Union: This is my only class in English and our prof is a funny guy from England. It is slightly more difficult as it is in English but the subject matter again is surprisingly interesting. The ins and outs and the so-far miracle status of the European Integration Project is something that truly blows my mind. Imagine uniting throngs of different countries, languages and cultures, adopting a common currency and economic policy and creating brand new institutions to manage all of this. Then imagine it, through all the bureaucracy, having a positive affect (this is debatable, as I've learned, but my interpretation is that so far it's been a relative success) on its members.

So that's the description of my classes. It's a heavy load but I'm glad I'm doing it and it is a different change from the same-old same-old at U of C. Now you can all rest assured that I am in classes, that this hasn't all just been a figment of my imagination (or yours!).

Just a little update...

Things in Seville are busy as usual. The days pass with such intense vigour, that I really can't describe it. The heat comes and goes and as much as the school work ebbs and flows, I feel a monsoon coming on. Last weekend I took a brief day trip to Cadiz, which in on the Costa de la Luz (if I'm not mistaken), and it was beautiful. My main objective was to see the cathedral and hit the beach. Both we accomplished. I climbed up the bell tower with exceptional views, as I probably mentioned in my last post but it's worth mentioning again. Then, on the Sunday I went to a Seville Futbol Club soccer match. Unfortunately Sevilla lost but the game was fun and I was in good company so I really can't complain.

This weekend I had planned to do the same day trip thing except this time head to Malaga. However, as this weekend was the weekend of Santa Pilar, the Patron Saint of Spain, there were fewer trains running and much more people going places. The trains were all booked so I decided to stick around Sevilla, which also did not disappoint as I got on my bike and toured around and spent the afternoon/evening with Phil and Chris playing guitar, eating and drinking rum and it was nice. Tomorrow we're hitting Sevilla's last bullfight of the year, hopefully it's not sold out, but I guess we'll see.

Then it's back to the grind, my first midterm is this week with three more the following week. Then people, the countdown to Morocco begins. I keep saying I'm going to tell you more about school, but it just seems so far on the back burner in terms of all the other stuff going on. Needless to say, I am still in school, despite being in Spain they still have the audacity to give us exams and homework and and and. It's really not that bad, one day I'll give the school part its deserved portion of blog glory. But not today.

Can you tell school and life is getting hectic??

Hello everyone!
Things are getting pretty busy so I'm just going to throw up my photos from London, Portugal and I will get my most recent ones up of this past weekend in a few days.

London was fabulous, though cold, as usual. Lagos, as I wrote, was a gong as usual. This weekend I rented a bike again and toured around the city. Then I went to Cadiz, a lovely coastal town with quite a history and quite a cathedral, for the day by myself for an excursion. I took the two hour train and climbed up the famous cathedral bell tower whose views you will be gushing over. Then I went to a party on Saturday night and today, Sunday, I went to my first Spanish league soccer game. Though Sevilla lost, the game was great and I picked up a few new swear words to add to my vocabulary.

A brief word on school, so that you know that I'm still going: My five courses are as follows: 1. History of Spanish Art (in Spanish), History of Spanish Cinema After the Democracy (in Spanish), Spanish for Business (Spanish), Translation (Spanish) and History of the European Union (in English, with a lovely British bloke who is a great prof). Classes are picking up and the workload is infringing upon my liberal travel schedule but so far classes are good, profs are good and my mexi-spanish is being understood, so I have no complaints.

I will post more later, but that's what I've been up to the last few weeks! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!